SSC CGL PYQ: Previous Year Question Papers 2015–2025

This page lists SSC CGL previous year question papers for 11 years, 2015 to 2025, with labelled mock papers for 11 years with no official question paper. SSC CGL (Staff Selection Commission Combined Graduate Level) is conducted by the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) and covers Quant, Reasoning, English and GA. Pick a year below for the paper, answer key and a timed practice plan; confirm dates and pattern on ssc.gov.in.

Explore: Question papers by year · Syllabus & pattern · Pattern changes · FAQ

Year-wise question papers

Want to practise one topic at a time? SSC CGL topic-wise practice sorts the 220 questions from our labelled mock papers by section and topic.

About SSC CGL

SSC CGL (Combined Graduate Level) is the Staff Selection Commission’s main recruitment exam for graduates. It fills Group B and Group C posts in central ministries and departments: assistant section officers, income tax and GST inspectors, auditors, accountants, junior statistical officers, sub-inspectors in central agencies and many more. Any graduate within the age limit for a post can apply, and the applicant count runs into lakhs every year.

The Staff Selection Commission runs the whole process, from the notification to the final allocation of posts. The year in the exam’s name is the notification year. It is not always the year the exam was held. Several recent cycles slipped by many months, so “CGL 2020” was actually sat in 2021.

Old papers matter more for CGL than for most exams because SSC has a very recognisable house style. The same arithmetic set-ups, the same idioms and one-word substitutions, the same static GK facts come back year after year with small changes. Once you have worked through a few years, you start to see a question and know which of last year’s questions it is a variation of. The syllabus, eligibility and marking details are on the SSC CGL syllabus and pattern page.

SSC does not publish a full question paper for each shift on its website. During the answer key window, candidates can log in and see their own response sheet with the questions, and that is where most of the papers you see online come from. The year pages on this site use clearly labelled mock papers built on that reported pattern, so you know exactly what you are practising with.

How the paper has changed since 2016

You will meet two quite different structures in CGL papers from the last ten years. Tier I has stayed almost the same. The later stages changed a lot in 2022, and that changes how you should use the older Tier II material.

Tier I has four sections of 25 questions each: General Intelligence and Reasoning, General Awareness, Quantitative Aptitude and English Comprehension. There is one 60-minute timer for the whole paper, so you choose your own section order. Each question carries 2 marks and a wrong answer costs 0.50.

From 2022, Tier I only decides who goes through to Tier II. Your final rank comes from Tier II. That shift matters for practice. Tier I is now about clearing the cut-off with safe accuracy, while Tier II is where every mark counts.

Shifts and normalisation

Every CGL computer-based test runs over many shifts across several days, and each shift gets a different paper. SSC then normalises the raw scores so that a candidate in a harder shift is not penalised against one in an easier shift. Your normalised score can be a little above or below your raw score.

This has two practical effects. First, there is no single “CGL 2024 paper”. There are dozens of shift papers, and a memory-based paper you find online is one of them, reconstructed by candidates. Second, it is pointless to judge your preparation by whether a reported shift felt easy. Work on the accuracy you can control, and let normalisation deal with the shift.

What the papers show, section by section

Quantitative Aptitude

Arithmetic is the backbone: percentages, profit and loss, discount, ratio and proportion, simple and compound interest, time and work, time and distance, and averages. Around these sit algebra (identities and values of expressions like x³ + 1/x³), geometry (triangles, circles, centres of a triangle, tangents), mensuration, trigonometry (identities, heights and distances, maximum and minimum values) and a data interpretation set.

The questions are rarely long. They are built so that a student who knows the shortcut finishes in 30 seconds and one who sets up equations takes two minutes. When you review a past paper, write down every question where you used a long method and find the short one. That list is worth more than another chapter of theory.

Most lost marks in Quant are calculation slips, not concept gaps. Keep those separate in your notes. A slip needs slower, cleaner working on the paper, while a concept gap needs study.

General Intelligence and Reasoning

Tier I reasoning is mostly quick: analogies, classification, number and letter series, coding and decoding, blood relations, directions, seating order, syllogisms, Venn diagrams, missing numbers, and a block of non-verbal questions such as mirror images, paper folding, embedded figures and counting triangles.

Past papers show that the non-verbal questions are the most predictable in the whole exam. The same eight or nine types appear in nearly every shift. If you are losing marks there, a few evenings with old papers will fix it. The time traps are the long coding or seating questions. In a full mock, mark them and come back at the end.

English Comprehension

SSC English is heavy on vocabulary and fixed expressions. Synonyms, antonyms, idioms and phrases, one-word substitutions and spelling questions together make up a large part of the section, and the same words reappear across years far more often than students expect. Keep a running list of every word and idiom from past papers that you did not know. Revise that list, not a general word book.

The rest is grammar (error spotting, sentence improvement, fill in the blanks), active and passive voice, direct and indirect speech, sentence rearrangement, a cloze test and a reading passage. Most grammar errors in SSC papers come from a small set of rules: subject-verb agreement, tenses, articles, prepositions and comparison. When you miss one, write the rule in a sentence of your own beside the question.

General Awareness

This is the section where past papers help most and where students use them least. A large share of GA is static: ancient and modern Indian history, the Constitution and polity, Indian geography, basic economics, general science (especially biology and physics basics), awards, books and authors, dances, festivals, sports terms and important days. These topics repeat. The same national park, the same Article, the same classical dance form turns up again in a slightly different question.

Sort every GA miss into static or current affairs. Static misses go into a short list you revise every week. Current affairs from an old paper is not worth memorising, but it does show you the kind of event SSC asks about (appointments, sports results, government schemes, reports and rankings), which helps you decide what to note from the news.

Tier II computer and typing modules

The computer knowledge module in Tier II is qualifying, and the questions are basic: parts of a computer, MS Office shortcuts, internet and email terms, memory units and simple security ideas. The data entry speed test is also qualifying. Neither needs past papers so much as a few sessions of practice, but do not leave them to the last week, because failing a qualifying module ends your cycle regardless of your Maths score.

Notes on recent years

2025. Tier I was first set for August, then postponed to September. When it began on 12 September, sessions at several centres were cancelled because of technical problems and rescheduled for later dates. If you are sitting the next cycle, the lesson is practical. Read every SSC notice about your centre and keep your admit card details up to date. The paper itself followed the two-tier pattern.

2023 and 2024 were run on the two-tier pattern with Tier I as a qualifying stage. These are the best papers for setting your target attempts. Sit at least two Tier I mocks from these years under a strict 60-minute timer before you move to older years.

2022 was the first cycle on the new pattern. If you find Tier II papers from 2022 onward, use them for Tier II practice. Tier II papers from before 2022 had a separate 200-question English paper, which is good vocabulary practice but does not match the current session timing.

2016 to 2021 used the four-tier pattern. Tier I from these years is still close to today’s Tier I, so it is all usable. The Tier II Quant papers from this period are long and harder than most current Tier II Maths sessions, which makes them good practice for geometry, trigonometry and algebra once your basics are solid.

2015 comes from before the 2016 changes. Use it for content only.

Using old papers at different stages of preparation

With a year or more to go

Start with the basics of arithmetic, grammar and static GK. After each topic, pull every question on that topic from past papers and solve them. You will see early how SSC frames questions, which saves you from studying parts of a chapter that are never asked. Sit one full Tier I paper a month just to get used to the 60-minute format.

With about six months to go

By now you should have covered the syllabus once. Take one full Tier I paper a week and keep a notebook of every wrong and skipped question, sorted by section. Spend most of your weekday study on that notebook. Start Tier II-level Maths (harder geometry, trigonometry and algebra) and practise the computer module once a fortnight.

In the last two or three months

Sit two or three full papers a week. Do Tier I papers in the morning, when you are freshest, and track two numbers for each attempt: how many questions you tried and how many you got right. Save the most recent shift papers for the final month. In the last two weeks, revise your English word list and your static GK list every day, and stop starting new topics.

Mistakes students make with past papers

The biggest mistake is chasing a high attempt count. With 0.50 off for every wrong answer in Tier I and a full mark off in Tier II, ten guesses can wipe out the gain from several correct answers. Work out from your own mock data how accurate you are when you are unsure, and stop guessing if that number is low.

The second is skipping General Awareness review because “GK cannot be predicted”. The static part can, to a large degree. Students who keep a list of every static fact from past papers usually pick up several marks in this section without much extra effort.

A third is treating memory-based papers as exact copies of the real ones. They are reconstructions, and a few questions in them can be wrong or garbled. Use them for topic and difficulty, and when an answer seems off, check it against a textbook or the official answer key.

Last, many students do only full papers and never go back to topic-wise practice. If your Quant score is stuck, more full papers will not move it. Go back to the topic list from your notes and drill those questions until you can solve them quickly.

FAQ

Where can I find SSC CGL previous year question papers?

SSC does not post full shift-wise papers on ssc.gov.in. Candidates can see their own questions and responses through the answer key link for a limited time after each tier. The year pages here give practice papers built on the reported pattern, labelled as mocks, with notes on what each year tested.

What is the current SSC CGL exam pattern?

Since the 2022 cycle, CGL has two tiers. Tier I is 100 questions in 60 minutes across Reasoning, General Awareness, Quant and English, with 2 marks per question and 0.50 off for a wrong answer, and it is qualifying. Tier II Paper I has Maths, Reasoning, English and General Awareness sessions marked +3 and −1, plus computer and data entry modules. Check the latest notice before your exam.

How many years of SSC CGL papers should I solve?

Solve Tier I papers from at least the last six or seven cycles, and as many shifts from 2023 to 2025 as you can find. Older Tier I papers are still close to the current format. For Tier II, focus on 2022 onward, and use pre-2022 Tier II Quant papers as extra Maths practice.

Why are there so many different papers for one SSC CGL year?

Each tier runs over many shifts on different days, and every shift gets its own question paper. SSC normalises the scores across shifts afterwards. So a single year has many papers, and the ones you find online are usually memory-based versions of individual shifts.

Does normalisation mean I should hope for a hard shift?

No. Normalisation adjusts for differences in difficulty between shifts, so you cannot gain much from the shift you get. What you can control is accuracy. Aim for the same steady attempt rate you practised in mocks, whatever the paper feels like.

Are SSC CGL papers from before 2022 still useful?

Yes. Tier I has barely changed, so older Tier I papers are full practice. Pre-2022 Tier II papers had a separate 200-question English paper and a long Quant paper. They are good topic practice, but use the current session timing when you plan full Tier II attempts.

How should I review General Awareness from old CGL papers?

Split every miss into static and current affairs. Put static facts (history, polity, geography, science, culture, awards) on a short list and revise it each week, because SSC repeats these. For current affairs, note the kind of event that was asked rather than the event itself.

How do I know if a memory-based CGL paper is accurate?

You cannot be fully sure, since it is built from candidates’ recollections. Use it for topics, question types and difficulty. If an answer looks wrong, check it in a standard textbook, and compare it with SSC’s official answer key whenever one is still available.

Where to get the official papers

The Staff Selection Commission publishes CGL notices, answer keys and results on ssc.gov.in. If you sit a tier, download your response sheet while the answer key link is open, because it is taken down after a few weeks. We add practice papers and notes on each year, but the current notice is the final word on dates, pattern and eligibility.